Banff/Lake Louise

We made it to Alberta.  You may or may not have noticed that I skipped a day.  WiFi in the Canadian mountains is scarce and Greg figured out that our roaming “mobile” internet was costing $15/mb to upload pictures to the blog, so he thought that I should hold off.  I think that every one of those pictures is worth at least $60, but whatever.  After a very long drive yesterday, we arrived in Banff.  It is one of those places that Greg has always wanted to see.  We weren’t sure what to expect but apparently the 1880s discovery of a hot mineral springs in a cave in Banff, is considered to be what led to the birth of the Canadian National Parks system, thus creating a whole tourist destination.  The springs were cool – Avi turned her sweatshirt around so that she could put her hood over her face and not have to smell the sulfur.  Greg was really curious how hot the water was, but there was an endangered species of snail in it so it was kept out of the reach of curious tourists – but not out of reach of dangled children.   I have to say that the mountains around Banff are amazing – it is like 360 degree views of peaks that are every bit as cool as half-dome. Did you know that the water in Lake Louise looks turquoise because all of the other blue light rays are absorbed by the silt?  Mason got to experience it first hand when Greg paid him to submerge himself in the 50 degree water for 60 seconds.  Kambria and I pretended that we didn’t know them.  Lake Louise was every bit as beautiful as it is in pictures – the Fairmont “Chateau” as they call it would be a fun place to stay.  We had to content ourselves with using the lobby restrooms.